I sat down with the Glenfiddich Global Brand Ambassador, Struan Grant Ralph, a travel aficionado who thanks to his role, gets to travel to almost every part of the world, taking the Glenfiddich spirit with him. Struan who has held this position for the last one and half years holds almost 20 years experience in the drinks industry. It was during his maiden trip to Kenya that I caught up with him.
What’s your favourite destination?
Wow, I don’t think I have just one they are quite a number. Kenya for one. The people are very friendly and the food is wonderful. It’s a very green city although the traffic is a bit of a nightmare. My trip to Iceland in 2014 was also memorable. Being a young country, both socially and geographically, it was amazing to experience its growth. It’s definitely somewhere that I would like to visit again and, having read a blog post on driving in iceland, I’d love to tour the country in a car or camper van to see more of its natural beauty.
5 essential travel items?
Here’s a tip, whenever you leave a hotel room, clap your hands and punch your fist. These accounts for your charger, laptop, adapter, phone, passport and outfit and then you’ll be fine. If you are missing any one of those, you are in trouble.
Most memorable airport experience?
One time in Mumbai, I was taken aside by soldiers with guns at the airport, because I didn’t have my ticket printed. It was on my phone. I was taken to someone’s office and that was scary.
Road trip or air travel which is your favourite and why?
Definitely road trip. I fly way too much. I love to drive. I’ve taken a road trip on Highway One down to the Keys and the view of the Pacific coastline was epic.
What’s on your travel bucket list?
I’ve never been to Argentina or the deep parts of South America. I also would love to go to Easter Island, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world and the Himalaya Mountains.
The most unexpected thing you’ve seen in Kenya
Baby elephants at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Some of the driving here in Nairobi is quite shocking.
Most unusual travel experience
I do a whisky tasting once a year on a boat which sails between Stockholm and Finland. It sails into international waters and they open a whisky show and I’ve hosted events on there for the last few years. The first time I did it, a heavy storm began and it became so cold the boat got frozen and we couldn’t move. In the morning, they had to turn on the engines to break through the ice so we could move. The upside of this was from where we were we could see the Northern Lights, (bright dancing lights, caused by collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth’s atmosphere. The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the Northern and Southern hemispheres.)
